Quote

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.

Maeve Binchy

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Maeve Binchy
Age: 73 †
Born: 1939
Born: May 29
Died: 2012
Died: July 30
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
School Teacher
Screenwriter
Short Story Writer
Writer
Maeve Binchy Snell
Become
Ducks
Women
Mainly
Take
Charge
Confident
Ugly
Start
Lives
Ducklings
Beautiful
Swans

More quotes by Maeve Binchy

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If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.
Maeve Binchy
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My brother married young, and his is the best marriage I know.
Maeve Binchy
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I'm particularly fond of boned chicken breasts with a little garlic under the flesh and cooked in a casserole for 40 minutes with a jar of olives, some cherry tomatoes and a spoonful of olive oil.
Maeve Binchy
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I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer.
Maeve Binchy
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I was the big, bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous, and anxious to be a saint - a settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith.
Maeve Binchy
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You can't lay down laws for what people think and hope.
Maeve Binchy
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You're much more believable if you talk in your own voice.
Maeve Binchy
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The biggest influence on my books was the fact that I had worked in a newspaper for so long. In a daily paper, you learn to write very quickly there is no time to sit and brood about what you are going to say.
Maeve Binchy
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I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.
Maeve Binchy
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I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident.
Maeve Binchy
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The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story.
Maeve Binchy
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Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.
Maeve Binchy
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On the first day of school, my father told me I'd be the most popular girl and everyone would love me and want to be my friend. It wasn't so, but it gave me an enormous amount of confidence.
Maeve Binchy
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I have been luckier than anyone I know or even heard of. I had a very happy childhood, a good education, I enjoyed working as a teacher, journalist and author. I have loved a wonderful man for over 33 years, and I believe he loves me, too.
Maeve Binchy
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I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.
Maeve Binchy
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I have an irregular heartbeat, so that means a fair amount of medication - and I have blood pressure pills, too, but no vitamins or supplements.
Maeve Binchy
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Happiness is in our own hearts. I have no regrets of anything in the past. I'm totally cheerful and happy, and I think that a lot of your attitude is not in the circumstances you find yourself in, but in the circumstances you make for yourself.
Maeve Binchy
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When I was younger, I avoided exercise or anything strenuous. I didn't even enjoy walking. As I got older, I spent so much time marking books or sitting at a desk writing that there was no room for exercise - not that I would have bothered anyway.
Maeve Binchy
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I do try to live every day as if it were my last, and it has worked for me so far.
Maeve Binchy
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I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.
Maeve Binchy